Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure to move the motion as it appears on the Notice Paper in my name. Every 10 hours ovarian cancer claims another victim. That is roughly the time we will be sitting in this chamber today. It is the sixth most common cause of cancer death in Australia. Ovarian cancer falls under the greater heading of gynaecological cancers and affects over 1,200 new women and their families each year. While great leaps have been made in recent years tackling other cancers, such as breast and cervical cancer, there has been little movement in the trends and rates of ovarian cancer. Perhaps this is because it is hard to detect in its early stages when it can be treated and it is far easier, unfortunately, to detect when it has advanced too far. Some women are lucky, but most are not.

For women diagnosed with breast cancer between 1982 and 1986, the five-year survival rate was 70.9 per cent and that has increased by over 15 per cent to a five-year survival rate of 86.6 per cent for women diagnosed between 1998 and 2002. That is a substantial improvement in the survival rate. But when it comes to ovarian cancer, the figures are not so encouraging. The five-year survival rate for women diagnosed between 1982 and 1986 was only 34.3 per cent, less than half that of women with breast cancer. That survival rate has increased but only to 42 per cent, still well under half of that for women with breast cancer. The 10-year survival rate is even less encouraging. With the most recent figures available for women diagnosed with breast cancer it is 73.6 per cent, up from 57.5 per cent; for women diagnosed with ovarian cancer, the 10-year survival rate is only 32.2 per cent, up from 29.6 per cent. This represents only a 2.6 per cent improvement since the early 1980s.

Between 1991 and 2001, there was a 23 per cent increase in new cases of ovarian cancer being diagnosed; during the same period of time there was a 33 per cent decrease in the number of new cervical cancer cases. Fifty-seven per cent of all deaths from gynaecological cancers are from ovarian cancer and that is up from 52 per cent in 1991.

Something needs to be done. There needs to be more research devoted to this cancer, more education. I am pleased that in this budget there is a $5.1 million allocation for the National Centre for Gynaecological Cancers over the next three years. But it can only be a first step though, a down payment, as we will need a much greater effort backed by greater resources into the future. The journey will be long to reduce the mortality rates for ovarian cancer and to develop early detection tests but also to teach women what symptoms to look for. In a survey conducted by the National Breast Cancer Centre, half of all Australian women believed incorrectly that a pap smear would detect ovarian cancer and 56 per cent of women were unable to correctly name any signs or symptoms.

Ovarian Cancer Awareness Week ran from 24 February to 2 March. I am grateful for that because, prior to reading the information sent to me for ovarian cancer week, I was one of the 56 per cent of women who are largely ignorant of this disease—even though as a woman I am quite meticulous about my health and I have all the recommended tests on time and keep good medical records. So if I do not know about it, I think it is not surprising that there are so many other women who also do not. Ovarian cancer is often a silent disease in the early stages, which means many women have no symptoms. If symptoms do appear, they are usually vague and may include swelling, discomfort and pain in the abdomen, gastrointestinal symptoms such as heartburn, nausea and bloating, changes in bowel habits such as constipation and diarrhoea, tiredness and appetite loss, unexplained weight loss or weight gain, changes in menstrual pattern or post-menopausal bleeding. These symptoms are of course common to many illnesses and any women experiencing some of these could assign them to a range of different conditions—and most women with these symptoms will not have ovarian cancer. Only tests can confirm the diagnosis. We would do well as a nation to devote more effort and resources into fighting this deadly cancer.

Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Parramatta for presenting her motion on ovarian cancer, calling for greater focus on education and additional research funding for early detection and more effective treatments. Although we still do not know what causes ovarian cancer, what we do know is that approximately 90 per cent of ovarian cancers start on the outer covering of the ovary, and this is known as epithelial ovarian cancer. Although a relatively uncommon disease, it claims the lives of 800 Australian women each year, with 1,200 women being diagnosed each year. The symptoms of ovarian cancer are often unclear and mirror those of other disorders, which of course makes it difficult to diagnose in its early stages. I agree with the member for Parramatta when she calls for better educational support for general practitioners to provide more early detection tests and for women to have an increased awareness and knowledge about gynaecological cancers and symptoms. Therefore, medical research into this cancer must continue and must be adequately funded.

The previous coalition government’s history of funding research into ovarian cancer included $3.3 million in 2004 for research delivered by the National Health and Medical Research Council, from which the council released guidelines for the management of women with epithelial ovarian cancer. In 2005-06, the NHMRC provided more than $44 million for research into gynaecological cancers. The Australian ovarian cancer study is also funded by a grant from the NHMRC. In 2005, the AOCS secured funding through to 2011 for ongoing collection of clinical data follow-up, allowing the collection of a minimum five-year clinical follow-up on all cases. In addition, the AOCS also obtained funding to manage and maintain its core facilities through to 2010.

In 2007, the former government provided seed funding of $1 million for the establishment of the National Centre for Gynaecological Cancers to combat ovarian cancer. The centre, under the auspices of Cancer Australia, provides education and awareness services relating to ovarian cancer. The National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre is an independent national authority and information source on breast and ovarian cancer, funded by the Australian government to work in partnership with health professionals, cancer organisations and researchers to improve outcomes in breast and ovarian cancer.

In September 2001 the federal government established the national Ovarian Cancer Program to improve the health outcomes for women with ovarian cancer. I commend the work of the Ovarian Cancer Program, which covers all aspects of this disease from risk factors, symptoms and diagnosis to the multidisciplinary treatment of women with ovarian cancer, to raise awareness and improve outcomes. I am concerned that the government’s budget allocation for its national cancer plan to support the Centre for Gynaecological Cancers will fall well short of what is required to not only get the awareness message out to Australian women but also adequately fund much needed continued medical research into the disease to improve early detection, tests, treatment and outcomes. The coalition established an ongoing commitment to the national health priority initiative as a collaborative approach to dealing with a range of conditions that account for a high financial and human burden, including cancer, and had an ongoing commitment to fund more radical research.

The change expected in the large number of people dropping their private health insurance due to federal Labor increasing the threshold for the Medicare levy will put more strain on the public hospital system. It therefore poses a threat to the health dollar, which may well see more funds having to be poured into the states and territories to prop up their underfunded hospitals. But these are the very funds that should be invested in increasing medical research and education campaigns on important issues such as ovarian cancers. I am concerned that the government will fall short on funding the National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre and limit its ability to deliver educational awareness campaigns as well as early detection markers to provide more effective treatments for this insidious disease. More funding is required for the National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre and this important research must continue. Such investment is necessary to ensure Australia continues to be a world leader in health and medical research.

Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to congratulate the member for Parramatta for bringing this important motion to the parliament. I must put on record my disappointment at the previous member trying to politicise such an important debate, one that all women and all members of this House should be behind. There is no cancer that is as hard or as difficult to detect as ovarian cancer, which affects so many women without the chance of recovery being so great.

Some 1,200 women in Australia are diagnosed each year with ovarian cancer, 800 die of it and over 70 per cent—although some figures say 80 per cent—of women diagnosed with the cancer do not live past the five-year mark. Where the cancer has spread, it is very difficult to treat. Because it is so hard to detect, invariably the cancer has already spread. The most common symptoms are abdominal bloating, feeling full, appetite loss, unexplained weight gains, constipation, heartburn, back pain, urinary frequency, fatigue and abdominal or pelvic pain.

I recently lost a very dear friend to ovarian cancer. She was diagnosed on 29 September 2003 at Belmont Hospital. She was operated on within a couple of days at John Hunter Hospital. She died on 15 April this year. Her name was Vera Dybell, a wonderful woman and a very brave woman who never complained and fought right to the very end. She had had no symptoms whatsoever. She was a healthy woman and she lived each day actively but she suddenly became ill. She could not stop vomiting. It was only because she struck a very good obstetrician at Belmont Hospital that the ovarian cancer was diagnosed as quickly as it was. Unfortunately, the doctors knew after she had her first operation that it had not been successful. They had removed all the cancer that they could see but they knew some cancer was left behind. So she had three bouts of chemotherapy and she lost her hair on two occasions, yet she stoically stood up and fought her battle against cancer. She then had a blockage of the bowel caused by the ovarian cancer spreading to the bowel. She was operated on, and I think that was probably at Christmas two years ago. She was very sick at that stage but she recovered and came back until very recently, when she had another blockage and, unfortunately, they were unable to treat her.

Jeannie Ferris, a former member of the Senate, also died of ovarian cancer. The victims are women who are very aware, know their own bodies, look after themselves and have regular health checks. They are probably women who would never have thought that they would develop ovarian cancer. I know that in Vera’s case her stomach became very swollen. Her husband told me it swelled up like a balloon, which is another one of the signs. Apart from getting very ill very quickly, Vera had no other sign.

It is an insidious disease. Women cannot discover they have it through having a pap test. They can discover it only by having a vaginal CT scan. There are blood tests—there is the CA125 blood test, but it on its own is not conclusive. The only conclusive test to prove that a person has ovarian cancer is the taking of a biopsy. I think that shows there is a real need for all members of parliament to get behind this motion to support further research into the cause and treatment of ovarian cancer and to see what we can do to deal with this, the sixth biggest killer of women in Australia as far as cancer is concerned. We do need to deal with it. We need to get in place proper programs and research. (Time expired)

Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Let me just say that rarely do I agree with the honourable member for Shortland, but I agree with everything that she just said other than her criticism of the honourable member for Forrest. The major point that I want to make is that it is vital for all women, regardless of their age, to make sure that they have regular medical checks for ovarian cancer. It is as simple as that. Ignore regular check-ups at your peril. The member for Shortland highlighted the difficulty of diagnosis of this disease, and I support what she said as far as additional research is concerned because it will hopefully bring forward a simpler test which will enable people to work out whether in fact this disease is present. I also urge the government to consider launching a new advertising and awareness campaign to help educate all women of the specifics of this cancer and to highlight very strongly indeed the need for women to discuss this regularly with their general practitioners. Research is important and we need to find a cost-effective test for the condition.

Interestingly enough, today breast cancer is publicly discussed without fear or embarrassment. That was not always the situation, and that openness has saved lives. I spoke in this House some time ago about the need for prostate cancer to also be discussed as openly as we discuss breast cancer, and I believe that is increasingly occurring. Today I repeat the suggestion that lives will be saved if we can have discussion about forms of cancer, including ovarian cancer. It is not something to be hidden; it is something that should come out into the open. If we can talk about it and the need for research into it then there is a higher likelihood that we will discover a test which will easily determine whether women have this insidious condition.

The latest figures from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare show there were 884 deaths from ovarian cancer in 2005. This equates to something like one death every 10 hours from this condition in Australia. The proportion of all cancer deaths attributed to ovarian cancer today is 5.2 per cent, down from 6.1 per cent in 1968, but this figure has remained fairly constant over the last 40 years. This cancer, much like prostate cancer, has the unenviable distinction of most often having no symptoms until it is very much advanced. That is a concern because it can often be present for a considerable period before symptoms manifest themselves clearly, if any do at all. The member for Shortland highlighted this fact quite articulately. Unfortunately, it is common in the majority of cases that, by the time it has been diagnosed, the cancer has already spread to other areas, beginning to grow before the original cancer has even been identified.

Ovarian cancer is one of those cancers which women must be particularly vigilant about and aware of and must be proactive in giving themselves every opportunity to catch it very quickly and as soon as possible when and if it appears. It is a sobering and unacceptable fact that more than half of those women diagnosed with ovarian cancer are not diagnosed until the cancer is in the advanced stages, and this fact ensures that the outcomes are not always favourable. Given the absence of noticeable symptoms, coupled with the absence of a standard, cost-effective medical test, the survival rate of those who are diagnosed is often relatively low. Sadly, it is around 35 per cent.

Those who are diagnosed at the early stages have a very good prognosis. Nine out of 10 women are cured and go on to live normal lives. Having said that, I add that it really is important to have research to assist with the discovery of this condition at a stage when women can be cured. Sadly, the complexity of the condition and the fact that so many people are not discovered to have the condition until it is too late mean that so many people who suffer a diagnosis of ovarian cancer have a very poor prognosis.

I think this is one of the issues that should unite both sides of the parliament. It is not a political issue; it is an issue of health. It is an issue, I think, of allocating community resources to achieve positive outcomes. We need a very simple test that will assist women in knowing whether they are at risk and whether they indeed have ovarian cancer. Money is needed and I ask the government to allocate it. (Time expired)

Sharon Grierson (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Firstly, I begin by congratulating the member for Parramatta for bringing this important motion before the House. The motion notes that Ovarian Cancer Awareness Week was held from 24 February to 2 March this year. To raise awareness during that special week, a DVD warning women of the symptoms of ovarian cancer was launched. The DVD featured our former colleague Senator Jeannie Ferris, who recorded her part of the DVD before, very sadly, she died last April after a long fight with ovarian cancer. If this DVD helps to save even one life, then it is certainly a significant addition to Senator Ferris’s legacy.

Too many women, though, still die of ovarian cancer, which is often referred to as the silent cancer. Across Australia it is the sixth most common cause of cancer death in women. In the Hunter-New England region, which includes my electorate of Newcastle, the latest available figures show that 259 women were diagnosed with ovarian cancer between 2000 and 2004. In that same period, 171 women died of ovarian cancer—66 per cent of those diagnosed. The reason for that, as we know, is that women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer far too late. Regrettably, seven out of 10 women are diagnosed when the cancer is advanced and very difficult to treat. One of the reasons why we diagnose it too late is that, as my colleague the member for Parramatta mentioned, many women simply do not know the symptoms. A recent study found that more than half of women cannot correctly name any symptom of the disease. We need to turn that around. The good news, though, is that through early detection about 90 per cent can survive and be assisted, as the member for Fisher mentioned.

We need to make sure that women know what the symptoms of ovarian cancer are so that they have access to early treatment. That is why, I think, we all stand here today: to encourage women to be aware of this risk to their health. To do that, in Newcastle there is the annual Relay for Life, which raises both awareness of and funds for cancer. I have been privileged to walk in that relay several times alongside my very good friend and ovarian cancer survivor Victoria Phillis. I have also been proud to see the wonderful work of another good friend, Barbara Whitcher, who leads the Newcastle Relay for Life committee in organising that event each year. Last year, the relay was in November, smack in the middle of the election campaign—but what a wonderful reminder of why we put ourselves forward and who we are serving. To walk with cancer survivors and their families was a very special reminder that we do this job to serve the people who need it most. In all of our electorates we share that responsibility. We are in a position to raise these issues here in the House, as we are doing tonight, and to push for the direction of even more government resources towards these important issues. That is the bipartisan spirit that needs to be brought to this debate.

I am pleased to share with the House the news that recently the collaborative study between Hunter Medical Research Institute scientists in my electorate of Newcastle and their colleagues in Germany and Poland has identified four genes which were associated with a woman’s likelihood of developing breast or ovarian cancer. I also note earlier research at HMRI, generously funded by Newcastle’s Greater Building Society, that was successful in using a common cold virus to attack ovarian cancer cells in the test tube and in mice. I am pleased that this research is happening—and, of course, particularly proud that it is happening in my electorate of Newcastle. It is the kind of research we need to keep supporting if we are to make the advances needed in the prevention and treatment of ovarian cancer. That is the way to avoid so many deaths.

In my electorate of Newcastle cancer funding was given a big boost of an additional $1.5 million to upgrade PET scanning facilities. There are not many PET scanners in the country, but they are a vital technology in the detection of cancer—early detection and making sure you have got it right—and in judging the stages of cancer so that the right treatments can be utilised.

It is important that all of us support the advance of cancer research and treatment and always champion raising awareness for the people we serve. I thank the member Parramatta, I congratulate the member for Fisher and commend the member for Shortland for contributing to this very important debate. I commend this private member’s motion to the House.

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Urban Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with great pleasure that I rise to support this motion in relation to ovarian cancer, and I commend the member for Parramatta for the motion. I wish to begin by remembering a friend of mine from secondary school. Her name was Mandy Mitchell. She was a beautiful, lively, vivacious young woman who had her whole life ahead of her. Not long after leaving secondary school she was struck down by ovarian cancer, and her life was lost at a very early age, within a few short years of leaving school. She was a wonderful woman and she was full of the joy of existence until her final day. That is why this, in particular, is a very important issue for me.

I want to deal with the issue of ovarian cancer in three short stages—the facts, the challenge of responding to it and the steps forward that we can take. The facts are quite confronting. We know that about 1,200 Australian women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer each year. About 800 Australian women die of ovarian cancer each year. In many situations ovarian cancer is known as the ‘silent killer’, because its symptoms are vague and can be attributed to other conditions, and we might not assume they are associated with such a sinister and dangerous condition. Symptoms can include abdominal bloating, back pain, appetite loss, changes in toileting habits, unexplained weight gain or loss, indigestion or heartburn, and fatigue, all and any of which could be assumed to be other, much milder, less dangerous conditions. Against that background, ovarian cancer is the eighth most common cancer diagnosed in Australian women. It is the sixth most common cause of cancer death in Australian women. It is something which takes mothers and daughters and sisters and wives from those within our midst.

Against that set of facts, one of the great challenges we have in relation to ovarian cancer is that a very high number of Australian women, one in five, cannot name a single symptom. That is not a point of criticism; it is a point of deep concern. Over 60 per cent of Australian women believe a pap test, which is designed to detect cervical cancer, will detect ovarian cancer. I am advised there is currently no effective method of screening women for the early signs of ovarian cancer. However, the outlook is good for those women in whom the disease is caught early. However, three-quarters of women—and this is critical—are diagnosed at an advanced stage when it is difficult to treat.

This brings me to the question of how we proceed. The most important issue here is research. Where possible, education for women is needed to assist them in the search for and early diagnosis of ovarian cancer. Research is critical for providing the knowledge and the education to give people the best chance of catching this condition at the earliest possible stage.

The National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre was established in 1995, and I am pleased that in 1999 the previous government provided funding to expand the centre’s work to include ovarian cancer. It was an important step forward. It was not the end of the road; in many ways it was the beginning of a long and important journey, which will help Australia’s women and young girls. The centre works with many people to improve outcomes for women affected by these cancers. Importantly, the report of a Senate inquiry into gynaecological cancers tabled in February last year identified a need for increased awareness of the symptoms and better education for general practitioners. General practitioners do a great job, but the more education we have for women and general practitioners the better. For males, being aware of the symptoms and in a position to tell partners to take note of them and to seek the best advice possible means we have an extremely important role. Ultimately, the role of research and education for the awareness of both women and men is critical. I commend the motion and I remember my friend Mandy Mitchell.

Danna Vale (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 41. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.